Handing back my hire purchase car due to faults

[Leahjane]

I recently bought a car from Carcraft 15/08/08 and having experience a huge number of faults with it, I am unhappy with the car and feel unsafe driving it. They have repaired the car with no cost to myself but due to the seriousness of the faults that occured I want to cancel the agreement. The faults being faulty brakes - 2 discs and all 4 pads replaced, gearbox cable coming off, fuel pump gone, fuel regulator gone........ all in the first 4 weeks!!!!!!! I have spoken to both the finance company and carcraft and neither will even consider it. Can you help? Where do I stand?

[Eve]

Ok, so it wasn't fit for purpose when you bought it but they have repaired it at their own costs so technically now should be.

If there are no longer any faults I'd have thought it would be difficult to give it back.

Have they have the car inspected and now OK'd that there are no further faults?

Did the car come with the damage or as it happened after purchase?

Were any inspections or tests carried out and any warranties or similar made before you purchased?

[Leahjane]

All faults happened within 4 weeks of purchase and according to the company banner they pride themselves in a 120 point check on every vehicle before it leaves the branch. The brake failure was within a week of purchasing and in my opinion should have been spotted on this check. Up to now no further faults have occurred and they claim to have checked the vehicle. Do I have to wait then until something else happens before taking this further. This is my children's safety at risk and faulty brakes and gear cables are very dangerous faults to be having in such a short space of time, dont you think??

[gouldc]

Brakes - certainly a big issue. Fuel pump and regulator - doubtful they would have picked this up - did you notice any performance issues when you purchased it?

Having worked in a garage, you'd be surprised how many components fail within a short period of time after having a tyre fitted, and obviously that is because the new tyre caused it!! It may be a co-incidence with those components.

Gearbox cable - again, it could just go (as mine did once in heavy traffic - lots of fun) with no warning.

It may well just be a series of unfortunate co-incidences (apart from the brakes of which there is no excuse) - this is probably why they have refused to take it back. It's very difficult in these situations as Carcraft have rectified the problems with no apparent issues.

You could pay to have the AA or RAC do one of their independent inspections on the car, and Carcraft would then have to rectify any further faults (apart from minor stuff like stone chips), but if the report comes up with nothing else, and then another component fails, it's just going to show that modern cars are generally rubbish and overly complicated with components not designed to last long in order for the manufacturers to screw you out of money